Brooks on Books: "The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating 50 Years of Television Specials" by Charles Solomon

I picked up the Kindle version of this book after we did our Peanuts episode this season. Yes, I would like to have the physical book. Yes, I would have liked to have read this before we did our Peanuts episode. It's not exactly what I expected, but it's a great resource.

On the pod, Mike and I talked about the relative lack of info about specific Peanuts specials aside from a few big holiday ones. While Solomon does not provide a guide to all of the programs, he does offer interesting tidbits about many of them. I hoped for info on each of them and was disappointed that nothing was said about It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown. Yet let's talk about what the book is and not what it is not.

First of all, there is a lot of great art--animation cels, production sheets, and more. You see a lot of work from Dean Spille, and you might think, hey, his characters look kind of funny. Well, he was a vital figure in Peanuts animation, providing production design for much of the original run of specials. Even in the Kindle version, it's cool to see a lot of the vintage artwork, but I imagine it's great in the print edition.

What really gets me is the text. Solomon does have info about a sampling of particular specials, but I think it's more an afterthought; that is, he threw those in when they didn't really fit in with the main text. What he does is produce an excellent look at how the specials were made. He draws on interviews with the creators (Not just Charles M. Schulz, but producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez) and also cartoonists and others to get an array of insights.

I like that this book delves into some details of how they created the TV programs. There is discussion of the animation itself and how things had to be altered from the strip to the screen so they would look right. There is material on how the stories were adapted and developed. Voice direction is covered, too. There seems to be at least a bit about almost every big aspect of production.

Mendelson talks about how one of the reasons working on the specials was a joy was that CBS left them alone. Another interesting tidbit: It's a Nightmare, Charlie Brown, one of the specials Mike and I thought didn't work, was one of the favorites of those who worked on it, partly because of the freedom that came from not adapting a storyline from the strip.

He also addresses the unpleasantness of Charlie Brown being blamed for missing kicks in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown despite Lucy pulling the ball away. Mike and I didn't like that, either, and Mendelson says many others didn't, to the point that in a rerun they edited out dialogue about Charlie "goofing up."

If like us you crave more info on the specials (and the early movies), check out this informative book. Solomon includes a lot of intriguing details along with the art in this one.

More Peanuts commercials!

Here's a recent upload of some Peanuts ads I had never seen! Go to the great BetaGems channel for more like this:

Peanuts action figures are great!

My wonderful wife Laurie gifted me some more cool stuff for Valentine's Day, and I think Peanuts week here at the podcast is a good time to share this Super 7 toy. I am not sure if the front is charming or creepy, but I love it either way. It's nice to have Charlie in the lesser-acclaimed blue shirt, too.

I already have a figure from It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown; Super 7 issued a Mr. Sack a few years ago. I wouldn't mind getting a tree-eating Charlie Brown, though, with the maniacal expression on his mug after his big chomp.

Credit to The Entertainment Nut for this pic, and please check out the site for a fine summary of the original storyline from the strip. The Nut confirms that this shot above is an extra for the special and not taken from the source material!

YouTube Spotlight: McDonald's drinking glasses

This week, our season finale of the podcast (But stay tuned for the Battys!) looks at It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown; and our YouTube playlist this week is filled with Peanuts. One of the more intriguing clips is this ad for a McDonald's promotional premium (see below).

I can't be alone in thinking that we lost more than just cool glasses when fast food chains stopped giving out stuff like this with value meals (and a 99-cent surcharge or whatever). Nowadays you are lucky to get a small plastic cup with a Happy Meal.

Glasses, whether they feature characters from Peanuts, Garfield, or Star Wars, are cool. They can be reused. They look nice in a cabinet or on a shelf. Also, they have heft! Taking one of those home with the food made it all a little harder to carry, perhaps, but they gave a sense of more. It felt like value! I don't need to tell you that fast food doesn't seem like nearly the same kind of value these days.

But really I just miss getting the cool drinking glasses.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 13-15: It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown

*Thank you for joining us for another fun season of the podcast! This week we look at the 1983 Peanuts special, It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown! The special is available on Apple Plus.

*The official Peanuts podcast Mike mentions is here. Later in the episode, I mention It's a Podcast, Charlie Brown.

*The motocross special is You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown; and the ice skating special is She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. The one centered on Lucy and Schroeder is Play It Again, Charlie Brown.

The election one is You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown. Snoopy joins the circus in Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown.

*I just got an e-book version of The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Television Specials by Charles Solomon. it looks like it focuses on the art, but it does devote space to most of the specials. I say "most" because it does not have a blurb about It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown!

*This Is America, Charlie Brown is an 8-episode series that CBS broadcast in Fall 1988 to Spring 1989.

*Here is the Frank Wing cartoon referenced in the original Peanuts strip and in the special, courtesy of a Reddit user.

*The "What, Me Worry?" gag is in our video playlist this week (See below).

*The Environmental Protection Agency began in 1970.

*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with lots of promos, commercials, and more with the Peanuts gang! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them! Get happy!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...

 

And so this is Arbor Day, and what have you done, APPLE TV PLUS?

I tell you what you have not done: You have not added It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown to your streaming service. You delighted me (because I happened to have Apple Plus; to be fair, you angered many who didn't) by adding the Big Three Peanuts holiday specials in 2020, then continuing to sprinkle in some in 2021. So far we have seen the New Year's, Valentine's Day, and Easter specials.

But what about Arbor Day?

I think many people still believe this is a fictitious program that people use to mock the ubiquity of Peanuts holiday shows. Yet it really did premiere on March 16, 1976, on CBS.

I wish Apple would unveil all the Peanuts shows, not just a handful of the most famous ones, and even if you don't make Arbor Day (which of course, contrary to Sally's assertion above, celebrates famed Revolutionary War hero Justice Arbor) a huge deal, wouldn't you like to see how the Peanuts gang tackles it? Fortunately, the shows aren't too hard to find if you look around, though Warner Brothers never did give comprehensive, coherent releases of all of them on home video. 

But does anyone know where to find The Stockard Channing Show?

Chuck Brown's Pumpkin Time: One of my favorite moments

 Let's kick off Halloween Week with one of my favorite moments from one of my favorite animated specials.  If there's one bright side to the Big Three of Peanuts holiday programs going to streaming video and off broadcast television, it's the wake-up call it seemed to give so many: Hey, we watch these and treasure them every year.

This little bit gets me each time I see it.  The gang is having a Halloween bash, and while Lucy and Violet look at a pumpkin and strike a contemplative pose, look who comes running out of nowhere like a bat out of hell:

All right, these screencaps are terrible. Apologies for my old-school DVD, but I'm sure glad I have it/ You know why? Because it means i don't have to count on a broadcast network showing it in and likely chopping it up.

I love this moment because Charlie is just running through the room yelling with his arms raised for no apparent reason. What is he doing? What's going on at this party? If Charlie, a guy who is often fairly reserved, is carrying on like this, what is happening in the other room?

People often remember the "grown-up" moments of the holiday specials, like Linus' sermon at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but times like this remind you that they are kids, after all. Maybe it's no wonder we never see adults around here!

Does Lucy Van Pelt play the TV Guide Game?

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and though I now have it on DVD, I still pretend I'm seeing it on CBS.  I've been watching this special for decades, and I never noticed until this year that in this scene Lucy Van Pelt is reading a TV Guide with herself on the cover!

I'm just thankful Mike has never called me a blockhead or threatened to slug me during an installment of the TV Guide game...yet.